Why are the alien factions so strong?

[Question]

They just completely stomp over the human factions. A alien AI will usually steamroll the human AIs with ease then it turns into a alien vs alien battle.

When i was playing usurpers, not only was it ridiculously easy with the free techs and recycling banks, but the caretakers took out every other faction on the map...leaving me to fight him.

Energy grids start producing energy from the get go, whereas if you are isolated or cant get a treaty, you dont produce any commerce. Definate advantage there. Usurpers are basically believers on steroids, same 25% attack bonus, no research penalty, easy elite units, free facilities, free techs, etc....

Why did firaxis go and make them so ridiculously overpowered? Does anyone know how to disable them from the game?

[JarlWolf]

4 things.
1. The aliens are meant to be overpowered- they are galactic race of hyper advanced alien, who came to Chiron after a long feud between within their civilization that has presumably driven them to near extinction. Whatever the case these aliens are no joke- they are far more advanced then humanity and thus already know what to look for when it comes to technological process- for them its just a matter of rekindling their means to use said knowledge.

2. The aliens will never get along with each other and this is evident even with custom alien factions as well. Being exempt from the human councils and having a distinct diplomacy penalty in general weakens them in that aspect, humans will not typically trust you very well. And I certainly wouldn't trust an alien faction, especially not the 2 vanilla progenitor ones...

3. To remove them you can either just not select them when you are making a game, either replacing them with original factions from the first 7 or using custom factions as viable replacements. There is many more, rather balanced custom alien factions out there and they aren't too hard to install. Custom human factions too that are also stronger and more capable of fighting against these powerful foes too.

4. They aren't meant to be balanced- they are meant to be a challenge as the expansion IS called Alien crossfire. Don't want them, just don't play them- you can also if you feel like risking it, modify their social stats to make their bonuses more in line with the other factions.

[Question]

Well i can deal with them, but the AI cant...i tried removing them from alphax.txt but that breaks the game...

[JarlWolf]

Out of curiosity what is your normal difficulty rating? Because I've seen the original factions manage to eradicate the aliens, and vice versa-

Custom factions also help quite a bit. It's why my custom faction set, the factions are so powerful. They are all tough opponents and strong to control- but with fairly hurtful flaws to boot..

[Question]

I usually play on librarian.

[gwillybj]

Well i can deal with them, but the AI cant...i tried removing them from alphax.txt but that breaks the game...

How did you go about this? I removed the Progenitors (and all of the X-factions) from my alphax.txt with no issues:

;
; First item is file name, second item is search key.
; These should always be the same except for debugging purposes.
;
#FACTIONS
GAIANS,   GAIANS
HIVE,     HIVE
UNIV,     UNIV
MORGAN,   MORGAN
SPARTANS, SPARTANS
BELIEVE,  BELIEVE
PEACE,    PEACE

;
; First item is file name, second item is search key.
; These should always be the same except for debugging purposes.
;
#NEWFACTIONS
BUXPINK,   BUXPINK
BUXORANGE, BUXORANGE
BUXYELLOW, BUXYELLOW
BUXGREEN,  BUXGREEN
BUXAZURE,  BUXAZURE
BUXVIOLET, BUXVIOLET
BUXBROWN,  BUXBROWN

;
; These are factions you want included in the startup list.
; These may also be chosen when a random faction is selected.
; First item is file name, second item is search key.
; These should always be the same except for debugging purposes.
;
#CUSTOMFACTIONS
VALARIN,    VALARIN
HIGHELVEN,  HIGHELVEN
GREYELVEN,  GREYELVEN
DARKELVEN,  DARKELVEN
DWARVES,    DWARVES
NUMENOREAN, NUMENOREAN
MENREALM,   MENREALM

I don't know if it's required by the program, but I always keep seven factions in each of the three sets.

[Question]

I just removed usurpers and caretakers....do i need to replace them with placeholders?

[Yitzi]

I just removed usurpers and caretakers....do i need to replace them with placeholders?

Yes.

As for the opening post: They're meant to be strong.  Play SP against aliens only if you want a challenge (especially if you play Cha Dawn).  In MP, I feel the best approach is to say that aliens can't take part in cooperative victory, so their strength means that nobody trusts them (though they might still ally for a time against a larger threat), making for intereresting games...

[Question]

What do i replace them with if i dont want custom factions to show up when using random factions? Will it work if i replace them with existing factions (e.g. 2x gaians)?

[Yitzi]

What do i replace them with if i dont want custom factions to show up when using random factions? Will it work if i replace them with existing factions (e.g. 2x gaians)?

That would increase the chance of Gaians showing up, and maybe even allow more than one to show up.

I don't think there is a way to have it select randomly out of 12 factions instead of 14.

[Geo]

What do i replace them with if i dont want custom factions to show up when using random factions? Will it work if i replace them with existing factions (e.g. 2x gaians)?

My best advise would be to replace them with 'navalized' factions. It gives the Pirates a bit more of a challenge.

[JarlWolf]

Plenty of custom factions to replace them with too. If you want links to my or Sigma's custom factions, check these links:
For mine
http://alphacentauri2.info/index.php?topic=3751.0
Try out Sigma's and others too, he has some really well fleshed out factions.

[Question]

Thanks. A question about the alien faction setting in the faction editor : Im guessing thats what controls the extra colony pod, starting battle ogre and the free resonance 3 armor? I removed the extra techs from the alien factions, but i noticed they could still build res 3 armor units at the start for some reason...

[Yitzi]

Thanks. A question about the alien faction setting in the faction editor : Im guessing thats what controls the extra colony pod, starting battle ogre and the free resonance 3 armor? I removed the extra techs from the alien factions, but i noticed they could still build res 3 armor units at the start for some reason...

Yes, some extra techs and units come automatically with being alien factions.

[Question]

I mean you can disable the extra techs but it doesnt look like you can disable the extra units, etc as they are hardcoded to be part of the alien faction tag...

But removing the extra techs has made things a lot more even.